Lone ranger Campbell withstands Zaheer fury

Zaheer Khan justified the trust his captain reposed in him with four wickets and bowled brilliantly as Zimbabwe could add only 46 runs in the last 10 overs.

Venkatesh Prasad gave him good company claiming two for 38 from his 10 overs.

Zaheer’s career best figures saw him take three wickets his last four overs as he once again displayed tremendous fire during the slog overs. He bowled captain Heath Streak and Travis Friend off beautiful yorkers and dismissed Bryan Strang by his sheer pace to end with figures of 10-0-42-4.

Zimbabwe had a sedate start with Campbell and Grant Flower playing cautiously before Flower was caught by Robin Singh off Prasad for 10. Paul Strang, promoted up the order as a pinch hitter, looked to prove his captain right when he flourished for some time and added 37 runs off 38 balls with Campbell. He hit two well-timed boundaries before being caught by Zaheer while trying to go over the fence off Sunil Joshi.

Paul Strang made 17 off 22 balls. Thereafter wickets fell at regular intervals as no one settled down for a big stand with Campbell.

The most fruitful stand was of 50 runs for the fifth wicket between Campbell and Guy Whittall, who kept the scoreboard ticking with quick running between the wickets. Whittall made 26 off 48 balls that had two hits to the fence.

Campbell completed his fifty off 59 balls and then his fourth one-day century off 129 balls which included six fours and a six.

The rest of the batsmen cut a sorry figure as they could not withstand the onslaught of Zaheer and company.

Scoreboard

Zimbabwe: A Campbell not out 105, G Flower c Robin b Prasad 10, P Strang c Zaheer b Joshi 17, S Carlisle (run out) 20, A Flower c Kambli b Zaheer 7, G Whittal (run out) 26, D Viljoen b Prasad 9, H Streak b Zaheer 12, T Friend b Zaheer 4, B Strang b Zaheer 0, M Mbangwa (not out) 0; Extras (lb3, w-2, nb-3) 8. Total (for nine wickets in 50 overs) 218
Fall of wickets: 1-24, 2-61, 3-111, 4-124, 5 174,6-187, 7-207, 8-215, 9-217.

Bowling: Khan 10-0-42-4, Prasad 10-0-38-2, Agarkar 10-0-37-0, Joshi 7-0-35-1, Sriram 2-0-9-0, Tendulkar 3-0-16-0, Robin 8-1-38-0.